Raw Shetland Fleece #3 and #4

Black Shetland

This one is so matted and I think it’s double coated but shortish, 3-5 inches. So many second cuts but not the shearer’s fault. With all the matting I’m sure it was difficult enough just to avoid cutting the sheep. And somehow it’s even filthier than the white. 3 soaks in and the water is nearly as dark as the first (which was nearly coffee dark).

Another Black Shetland.  This one is named Panda.

This was really an afterthought. I’d said I’d buy 10 lbs but the other three only came to 9 lbs. Tossed this one in because it was closest to 1 lb. I trashed at least 1/3 of it for being too short and the rest isn’t much longer, mostly about 2 inches, some longer bits. Looked longer but there was about 1 inch of rise at the bottom.

Here’s a pic of a few nests that I combed of the unnamed black Shetland.  It is double coated.  I cannot flick/brush as I normally would.  All I’m left with is the coarser wool if I do that.  So I just lashed the locks onto the comb, pulled out the longest coarse hairs and combed.  Turns out fairly soft.  I’ve not spun any of it yet.  It’s a bit of work since these locks are not great.  I finger tease it as much as I can but there’s still matting and second cuts resulting in nepps in the nests and still a lot of VM.

I’ve started work on the longest locks from fleeces #1 and #2. I’m essentially brushing them, first from tip to middle and then from butt to middle.  There are problems.  The tips pull off, often 2 or 3 inches or more.  They get tossed in a bin to see what I can salvage of them later (ignore the locks on the right side of that bin.  They are coarser locks that will be dealt with later.)  Sometimes an inch (or 2 or 3) pull off of the butt end.  The locks that remain long after all the pulling and brushing go in the right side bin.  The rest goes in the left side bin.

Later I will take the left side bin, lash them onto my hackle and immediately pull it off into nests.  No need to comb, they are all aligned and neat as is.  I will just grab handfuls from the right side bin and spin as it is, perhaps just a little pre-drafting first.